Tuesday, September 8, 2009

REVOLUCION! - Original Cuban Funk Grooves 1967-1978 (Freestyle, 2009)

Lately I've been digging a bit into old school Latin funk, maybe inspired by Chico Sonido's mind blowing debut album. Funk was never too popular during it's own time in Latin America, sure there are plenty of exceptions, but mostly the good funk and soul tracks from the seventies remained quite obscure and most faded into oblivion.We all know about Brazilian funk because it has been deeply researched by vinyl archeologist for a while now and there are a lot of great compilations that capture the bests of that era (I'm talking real funk and not baile funk or funk carioca here) like the Black Rio comps Volume 1 and 2. But very little is known abroad about funk music produced around the same time in other countries of Latin America.Fortunately, these guys at Freestyle records are helping to fill that gap with the amazing compilation they recently released dedicated to Cuban funk. Now this is something that got my by surprise for sure. I'm a huge fan of Cuban hip-hop (and I'm not talking Orishas here) but I never knew about Cuban funk. I downloaded this album as soon as I saw it and I loved it. If you are into what Fania was putting out around those same years in New York, you're gonna love this too.My only regret is that I didn't buy it in vinyl and I should've because I'm eager to read the liner notes and find out more about this music and the digital version doesn't include any of that information. I don't even know if there's a vinyl available but I assume so, because Freestyleputs out music mostly in that format, and I imagine if they release an album like this they must've at least included some sort of introductory text or some info on the artists. I hope somebody keeps digging through Latin funk and makes more comps like this one about other countries too.

Bondi Blaster

¡Lo Juimo!

Linyerismo I

Free Mix

Linyerismo II

Free Mix

Mersaholic

Free Mix

Chorisapiens

Free Mix

Barbarie

Disclaimer

This is not a bootleg's blog. If you got here expecting to find free illegal downloads you'll probably be disappointed. I only post links to free downloads when provided by the artist or record label, otherwise, I recommend you purchase the legal copies of the music. Some exceptions have been made for music that is not commercially available in digital form for the international market.But for the most part this blog is about reviewing new and exciting Latin music from a very personal, hence subjective, point of view. None of what is said here should be taken too seriously. Enjoy!

PS: If you want your music reviewed and/or shared on this blog, send a zip file or link to juan at djjuandata dot com